The Drawbacks of Anti-HIV Drugs ----- Taking a Closer Look at 'Cocktail' Therapies

Commentary By Nicholas Regush

It is taking on the appearance of a mass slaughter. A drug induced-nightmare of unprecedented magnitude for many people who have tested HIV-positive.

They have strokes, heart attacks and suffer liver and kidney damage. They develop dangerously high cholesterol and diabetes. Some of them have suffered gross deformities.

All because of anti-HIV drugs, namely the nucleoside analogues and protease inhibitors that make up the so-called combination or cocktail therapies. A name more worthy of the toxic effects listed on the drug labels would be "medical poisons."

Also alarming is that many of those who develop these afflictions are symptom-free at the start. No sign of AIDS-related illnesses or infections. But because they turn up positive on an HIV antibody test, their doctors, following the herd, hit them "hard and early" with the cocktails. In fact, the major market targets for the makers of these drugs are those without symptoms.

Pretty smart marketing, considering that many doctors will keep their patients on the cocktails even when their bodies begin to be ravaged by side effects and even after hospitalization. This is, of course, in the hope that somehow a miracle turnaround will occur and HIV will be neutralized.

Yes, there are those chronically ill people with AIDS who have reportedly arisen from their death beds once given the anti-HIV therapy. And because so much has been made of this by the press and the HIV medical establishment, it has not been easy to assess what is really going on here.

Drugs Have Anti-Viral Potential

First, these types of drugs do indeed have some anti-viral potential and in some cases might even function like antibiotics. This means that some of the viral and bacterial infections that AIDS represents might be neutralized, if only for a short period of time, before the toxic effects of the drugs take hold.

Second, these drugs have been poorly tested and their short-term effect has been inadequately associated with an impact on HIV. It has been AIDS scientist David Ho's ill-conceived contention that HIV replicates furiously in the body -- as measured by something called "viral load."

The drugs, he argued, could reduce this load, thus possibly neutralizing the virus. Unfortunately, the HIV viral load concept is a fantasy, if not a total absurdity. Using a tool to highly amplify what little remnants there might be of HIV in the blood, Ho has taken the grand leap to associate his approach as warranting early prescriptions of these highly toxic cocktails.

Because Time had the audacity to proclaim him "Man of the Year" in 1996, the press went wild in delivering messages of hope to those with AIDS. And on the basis of a handful of anecdotal cases of miraculous recoveries.

To date, there is still no study that any of these cocktails, separate or together can extend life. And contrary to those scientists who apparently stil l believe in the tooth fairy, there is no evidence that the use of these cocktails is related to the decline in AIDS deaths. Deaths due to AIDS were already declining in 1994, several years before the cocktails were shot out of a marketing cannon.

Now science must confront this ongoing travesty -- a guinea-pig experiment not unlike those medical forays conducted by the Nazis.

Those in science and medicine who are perpetuating or condoning this passive genocide will one day be held accountable.

>so, people should just sit back & not try to do what they can to live? How can anyone know for sure when you will get sick and/or die. If you started getting sick & went downhill fast wouldn't you be mad at yourself for not at least trying the meds that are available now? I don't beleive the doctors are doing this just for the fun of it. They are looking for a cure,now we have to go w what we have. What about people w cancer,chemotherapy is no walk in the park yet people choose it or don't. They can try & die or not try & live,who knows what will happen to an individual person. Untilsomething better comes along we have to go w what we have. Are you hiv pos? I doubt you are since you are so negative about these treatments.

"Trying" will get you nowhere. First and foremost you must decide to live. Make that decision and it will matter less what route you take to survive.

How can anyone know for sure when you will get sick and/or die.

No one can know for sure, including HIV negatives! Do you think that HIV negatives are immortal or something? As an HIV positive, you're more likely to die from heart disease. Only 11,000 people died from AIDS in the US in 1999, out of an assumed grand total of about one million HIV positives. That breaks down to about 10%, which is a surprisingly small number considering the drug regimens given to that portion of the population...

If you started getting sick & went downhill fast wouldn't you be mad at yourself for not at least trying the meds that are available now?

If you get sick, get treated for what's wrong with you. If you come down with pneumonia, get treated for pneumonia. It's pretty simple. If your doctor attempts to put you on an "HIV" drug regimen, have him sign this release form first:

http://www.aliveandwell.org/alive.cgi?page=certs

I don't beleive the doctors are doing this just for the fun of it. They are looking for a cure,now we have to go w what we have.

Get a grip! Doctors don't go around "looking for cures"! Doctors are pharmaceutical dispensers at best, because they cannot deviate from the protocols. Why? Because then not only would they be easy targets for malpractice suits, they would also experience pressure from the industry which might threaten their careers.

Doctors have a vested interest in keeping you in a health "maintenance" program which fuels the entire industry. Wake up! No should have ever given you this diagnosis! No one deserves to be told they are going to have to either take a gazillion pills a day or die, based on a paltry few antibodies! That's absurd!

What ever happened to common sense; like "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

What about people w cancer,chemotherapy is no walk in the park yet people choose it or don't. They can try & die or not try & live,who knows what will happen to an individual person.

I tell you what, there's a guy in my office who was diagnosed with colon cancer last year, and according to his doctors he should have been dead by now. And he would have been dead had he not made the decision to live and stopped taking poisonous chemicals into his body. It don't matter if its AIDS, cancer, or what-have-you. No one deserves a death sentence from their doctor, and no one has to follow through with it.

Untilsomething better comes along we have to go w what we have. Are you hiv pos? I doubt you are since you are so negative about these treatments.

HIV+ since last summer, and drug-free. I DO NOT SUBMIT TO ANTIBODY TESTS, CDC CELL COUNTS, OR VIRAL LOAD TESTS. And I'll tell you another thing: I'm not the only one. There are many others I know of who are refusing to play this game. One piece of advice: get as much information as possible and make your own mind up about it. Don't let me, your doctor, or anyone else tell you what to do. Listen to your body.

It knows the truth.

P.S. If you are going to tell me to get off this board, to screw off, go to hell, or otherwise attempt to bully me: DON'T BOTHER. Just pass on by, your comments will be ignored.

However, if you have something intelligent to say or wish to engage in a rational debate, you are most welcome.

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